Rural Globalization

Globalisation is without a doubt the most effective force in reshaping rural localities worldwide (Woods, 2011). Nowadays, rural areas are being transformed at a rapid rate by processes caused by the never ending urban and sub urban growth and expansion both nationally and globally (McCarty, 2007). Globalisation causes many challenges in the development of the rural all over the world including the Scandinavian forest, South American Andean Mountains, mining towns in Australia and even fishing villages in India (Woods, 2011). It has been defined by many different geographers and academics in various ways in the context of rural space. Due to the increase in interconnections and the advancement of technology more and more rural localities are

The social processes in which globalisation evolves from include the “multiplication of social and economic networks that transcend traditional borders; the stretching of social and economic relations, activities and inter-dependencies over increasing distances; the intensification and acceleration of exchanges that are made across expanding distances in ever-less time and with increasing frequency; and the development of a global consciousness, in which people have a greater awareness of the world as a whole, and their place in it” (Stegar, 2003, p.13) (Woods, 2011a).However, geographers don’t like to look at globalisation as the transportation of goods, people and capital around the world. They simply like to term globalisation as the interdependence and interconnection of localities worldwide. There are many variations of globalisation that are having a noticeable effect on the reshaping of rural economies and societies such as the economic globalisation which includes agricultural change, the globalisation of mobility, cultural globalisation and the globalisation of industrial

Agricultural sectors which were affected by globalisation included forestry where exportation rates for wood have recently increased. Rudel (2002) explained that globalisation is conveyed in rural areas through the destruction of large rural forests along with the planting of new secondary forests. When the agricultural economy becomes globalised, farms become more specialised leading to a decrease in the demand for local produce in rural markets and an increase in the demand of the produce to be sold to global food companies. This in turn results in the traditional rural community links between the farmer and the local’s rural communities weakening both of which creates a major challenge in the reshaping of rural economies and societies. Agricultural geography has become more and more connected with the agricultural food system (Woods, 2007). Globalisation of the agricultural food system has given Irish farmers new opportunities and it prevents them from getting stuck in tradition by offering them the potential to develop various structures globally. It is clear that economic globalisation of rural localities is dependant on produce networks where the